Pirates seized a Greek-owned tanker with a German skipper and a cargo vessel chartered by a German company in the Indian Ocean, officials and the Bremen-based company said on Sunday.
The Singapore-flagged York, a 5,076-tonne tanker en route for the Seychelles, is carrying 17 crew, including a German master, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos, European naval forces in Brussels said in a statement.
It was attacked around 50 nautical miles east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa and initially drifted before moving at around 10 knots from Sunday morning, the EU mission said.
The EU mission said that in "a separate but seemingly linked incident" a fishing vessel, the Golden Wave, that was attacked by pirates on October 9, was seen in the vicinity of the tanker. Bremen-based Beluga shipping company meanwhile said one of its chartered cargo ships had been captured by pirates in the Indian Ocean.